Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1887-10-15

You might have knocked him down with
feather; and really Ii Is difficult not 20 pity a
high priest OF a well established cult who Il
haunted by the possible approach Of one or
all OF ninety-nve new religions.
When wo knew that Agon was efught,
Nyleptha, Sir Henry and | 4 scussnd what
was TO be done with him. was for closely
incarcerating him, but Nyleptha shook her
head, saying that II would produce disas-
trou effect throughout the country. 'Ahl"
she added with stamp of her foot, "if win,
and am once really queen, ! will break the
power Of those priests. with their rights and
revels and dark secret ways only wished
that old Agon could have heard her, it would
have frightened him.
@Well," said Henry, "it we are not to inn
prison him suppose that we may as well let
him go. He's no use here"
Nyleptha looked at him in a curious way,
end said, in q dry little voice, "Thinkest thou
so, my lordp
"EhT said Curtis. "No, don't see what
Is tho use Of keeping him."
She said nothing, but kept looking at him
in way that was as shy as it was sweet.
Then at last he understood
"Forgive me, Nyleptha," he said, rather
TREMENDOUSLY, "dost thou mean that thou wilt
marry me, even now9n ~
"Nay, know not; let my lord say,s was
her rapid answer; @but IL my lord wills, the
priest is there and the altar is theren--point-
ing to the entrance to private chapel-"and
am / not ready to do the will of my lordi
Listen, oh my lord; in eight days or less thou
must leave me and go down to war, for thou
slialt lead my ormies--and in war, men some-
times fall, aud II so, Iiwoud FOR little space
have hal thee all my own, IL only for MEM
ory's sake;' and the tears overlooked her
lovely eyes and rolled down her face like
heavy drops Of dew down the red heart of a
rose
"lIayhap, too" she went on, IL shall lose
my crown. and with my crown my life and
thine also. Sorais is very strong and very
hitter, and il she prevails she will not spare.
Who can read the futurei Happiness Is the
worlds white bird, that aights seldom, and
flies fast and far till one day he is lost in the
clouds. Therefore should we hold him fast il
by any chance lie rests for a little space upon
our hand. 1t is not wise to neglect the
present for the future, for who knows what
the future will be, Incubui Let us pluck our
flowers while the dew is on them, for when
the sun is up they wither, and on the morrow
will others bloom that we shall never seer
And she lifted her sweet face to him and
smiled into his eyes, and once more / felt q
horrible pang of jealousy, and turned and
went away. They never took much notice OF
whether l was there or not, thinking, l sup
| pose, that was an old fool, and that it did
not matter one way or the other, and really
| believe they were right
/ So I want haal IN ot,,. ,,arta,c n,d ,.,,,,.
mated over things in general, and watched old
Umslopogaas whetting his AK outside the
window, as vulture whets his beak beside
dying OK. j8E FfEG8
And in about an hours time Sir Henry
came tearing over, looking very radiant and
wildly excited, and found Good and myself.
and even Umslopogaas, and asked us il we
should like to assist at real wedding. OF
course we said yes, and off we went to the
chapel, where we found Agon looking as
sulky as any high priest possibly could; and
no wonder II appeared that he and Nylep.
tina had had q slight difference of opinion
about the coming ceremony. He had fatty
refused to celebrate it, or to allow any of his
priests to do SO, whereupon Nyleptha became
very angry, and told him that she, as queen,
was head of the church, and meant to be
obeyed. Indeed, she played the part of q
/ Zu-Vendi Henry VIII to perfection, and in.
sisted that il she wanted to be married she
would be married, and he should marry her.
| He still refused to go through the cere.
mony, so she clinched her argument thus:
"Well, cannot execute q high priest, be-
cause there is an absurd prejudice against it,
and l cannot imprison him, because all his
subordinates would raise a crying that would
| bring the stars down on Zu-Vendis and crush
it, but can leave him to contemplate the
altar of the Sun without anything to cat, be
cause that is his natural vocation: and il
thou wilt notmarTy me, o Agon! thou shalt
be placed before tho altar yonder, will
naughta but lite water till such time as
thou hast rccoisidered the inatter.n
Now, as it happe ed, ASon had been bur
ried away that morning without his break
fast, and was already exceedingly hungry, SC
| lie presently modified his views and consented
to marry them, saying at the same time that
he washed his hands of all responsibility il
| Il 9 matter.
So it happened that presently, attended
| fnly by two of her favorite mai,lens, came
| be Queen Nylptha, with happy blushine
ace and downcast eyes, dressed in pure
White, without embroidery Of any sort, a.
seems to be the fashion on these occasions il
most countries Of the world. She did no.
wear single ornament, even her gold circlets
] were removed, and | thought that if possible
she looked more lovely than ever without
them, as really superbly beautiful women do
She came, courtesied low to Sir Henry, anC
then took Ills hanl and led him up before til,
altar, and after little pause, in a slow, cleal
voice uttered the following words, which ar,
customary in ZuVendis if the bride desire
and the man consents:
"Thou dost swear by the Sun that thou vii
take no other woman to wife unless lay m,
hand upon her and bid her come"
~ swear it," added Sir Henry, adding il
English, "One is quite enough for me-"
Then Agon, who had been sulliing in a corne
near the altar came forward and gabbled Of
something intohis beard at such rate that
could not follow it, but II appeared to be a
invocation to the Sun to bless the union ant
. make it fruitful l observed that Nylepth
listened very closely to every word, and after
ward discovered that she was afraid les
', Ason should play her a trick, and by goin
: through the inyocations backward divorc
instead 81 marry them. At the end Of th
invocations they We're asked, as in our sery